The No New Clothes Initiative

Winter is coming (supposedly), which means coat weather. My old coat was a thrift store find from a few years ago (I got it for $10 in the middle of the summer and was so proud), but it finally reached the point of being too ratty to wear and too tired to be refurbished. So, in need of a new coat, I headed off to the thrift store. I had no trouble finding a replacement. In fact, I found two and had to choose only one (pictured below), leaving behind a nice red wool double-breasted coat.


After a couple of hours of shopping, I found myself thinking about my clothes-buying habits. I spend a lot of time and money on clothes (and books, but that's not relevant at the moment) and I make a lot of impulse buys. Frequently, these impulse buys are at Target or Old Navy. Cute, but not necessarily substantial or necessary. Surely, I thought to myself, I can find just as much (if not more) cool stuff at the thrift store. Plus, thrift store clothes are unique, cheap, and more environmentally friendly in that buying used clothes cuts back on the demand for and production of--or at least my support of--newly manufactured clothes from raw materials. I'd been toying with the idea of changing my shopping habits substantially, but this particular shopping trip sealed the deal for me. So here's the new plan.


Project: Buy only thrifted, vintage, or refashioned clothes for the next six months. This will primarily include local thrifting, but I'll also look to vintage shops (local and online), etsy, and ebay for my shopping needs. Whatever I buy must be used or refashioned from used materials, however. Eventually, I will try to cut out--or at least cut way down on--online shopping, too, in order to make my wardrobe and shopping habits even more environmentally friendly by diminishing the costs of transporting my stuff, but that will come later.

Exemptions from the initiative: Underwear, socks of the purely functional sort (should they become necessary), and fabric to sew with--assuming, of course, I become motivated enough to begin a real project any time soon.

Time Frame: I began a few days ago and will maintain this level for six months, setting the end date as March 27, 2008, my 29th birthday. Upon reaching the six-month marker, I can re-evaluate my goals and either renew my resolution to buy only non-new clothing or modify it slightly if necessary, perhaps at that point adopting a resolution to diminish my online purchasing.

Purpose: Challenge myself by having to look for the things that I want and need and having to work with what I have. Save money by buying clothes on the cheap instead of just cheap clothes. Practice more sustainable habits.


Realistically, this won't limit me too much. There are lots of thrift stores in my area and many of them are quite good. But it does make the purchases I make more ecologically sound, more interesting and unique, and, well, more thrifty.

And as a kickoff to the project, I went thrifting two more times this last weekend and found lots of awesome stuff. It will all be duly modeled over on Wardrobe_Remix.